The present invention relates to a connector and to a method for connecting a connector to a printed-circuit board.
A connector of a printed-circuit board has terminals, which are connected to a printed-circuit board. The terminals are soldered in through holes of the printed-circuit board. This connects the connector to the printed-circuit board.
It is difficult to accurately align the terminals with one another. Thus, to facilitate the insertion of the terminals, the diameter of the through holes must be significantly larger than the size of the terminals.
However, the reliability of the soldering decreases when the diameter of the through holes is significantly larger than the size of the terminals. This may cause, for example, cracking of the solder. Further, the large diameter of the through holes makes it difficult to decrease the pitch between terminals. As a result, the connector cannot be made more compact.
Therefore, a resin plate is attached to the terminals, to hold the terminal ends. By using the resin plate, the terminals are prevented from being deformed. However, the terminal alignment accuracy is insufficient due to the attaching tolerance, dimensional tolerance, and positional tolerance of the resin plate.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a connector and a method for connecting a connector to a printed-circuit board that maintains the optimal terminal alignment accuracy and improves the terminal soldering reliability.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for connecting a connector to a printed-circuit board having a plurality of through holes. The connector includes a case and a plurality of terminals attached to the case. The method includes forming a fastener from a metal having a fusion point that is substantially the same as solder to fasten the terminals, fastening the terminals at predetermined positions with the fastener in a state in which the terminals are accurately aligned to one another, inserting the terminals into the through holes, and releasing the terminals by fusing the fastener.
A further perspective of the present invention is a connector connected to a printed-circuit board having a plurality of through holes. The connector includes a case, a plurality of terminals attached to the case and soldered in the through holes to connect the connector to the printed-circuit board, and a fastener attached to the terminals to fasten the terminals at predetermined positions in a state in which the terminals are accurately aligned to one another. The fastener is formed from a metal having a fusion point that is substantially the same as solder.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.